The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 336

Why would they update FW for a dis-continued item?

My point was that it is a shame that they never got this box to it's full potential.

You know I always wanted to attend one of those CHARLIE CHATS hosted on Dish website. It is for their service, but people used to ask Charlie (CEO) about the Pals. I would like to ask if they plan on more updates or it is over for ALL updates.

Kmart has just dropped their price for the DTVPal DVR to $249.99. Standard shipping charges are $6.95 and a 2-year warranty is $29.99. The million-dollar question is will they run out of stock before they decide to drop the price even further???

Somebody drop a flag when it falls to 150....if everyone would just hold off buying one.

Isn't sears $125 WHY PAY KMART WHO owns SEARS more?

Sears raised the price around here $5 in the last week to $129.97. In the last three weeks, the price has been $149.97, $124.97 and now $129.97. None in stock locally.

Same time Fry's is full of CM 7000-PAL for $349.99.

You can still buy it on line at K-Mart.....But not at Sears.

Not about to drive across the US to pick one up at Sears in Florida or wherever they might still have one.

Here's an interesting article that was just posted yesterday (July 23) on CNET: DTVPal DVR is dead, but the identical Channel Master CM-7000PAL lives on. The author, John P. Falcone, discusses pricing, warranties and EchoStar marketing for the Dish DTVPal DVR and the Channel Master CM-7000PAL DVR.

Here's a couple of more online postings I found today regarding the demise of the Dish DTVPal DVR:

1. DISH Network Ends Half-Cooked DTVPal DVR by Kyle Thibaut (posted at CrunchGear on July 23)

2. End of the Road for DISH Network's DTVPal DVR by Dave Zatz (posted at Zatz Not Funny! on July 23)

All we can do is smile and wave, sittin' on our stack of DTVPals.

The Kmart price is down to $224.99 just for today (July 25) due to an extra 10% off for the Kmart Family & Friends event.

Still waiting........Who's got that confounding flag?
I paid 199 for my last one, and have too many TiVo's, Replays & HTPC's to pay more for another. Besides, if the Government cuts the spectrum, there won't be much worth recording OTA anyway.

As trp2525 said, the price today for the unit is $224.99 at Kmart, but if you go through a site like Ebates, you'll get 4% back as well. That's what I did. I live in the sticks and missed all the units on clearance at Sears and was determined not to do the same thing again.

Like CCRIDER2, I too am concerned about that Spectrum BS in DC..like we already gave up chs. 69-82. Enough is enough !

Actually we've already given up channels 52-83. Channels 70-83 were given up back in 1982 and were reallocated to land mobile radio (public safety and trunked radio systems) and mobile phones (cellular). Channels 52-69 were given up in the June 2009 digital transition and will be used for internet access among other things. Also in certain metropolitan areas of the US, channels 14-20 have been allocated to land mobile radio use instead of TV.

I have 2 DVR Pals and have a question about programming the remote control units.
At the present time I have 1 set for #1 (default) and the other set for #2.
Is it possible to assign my #2 DVR Pal to the "AUX or "VCR" buttons on my #1 remote control?
If so, could you give detailed instructions.
Thanks, Jim

please Help.

I can't find it in the manual, but it has been discussed way back somewhere in the early part of this thread.
Edit:
Here ya go. It's in this post.

Amazing. Just wondering who figured this out.

I don't know if this will work on the original Pal remote, but I have a Dish 20.0 learning remote that I have DVR #2 controlled by the aux button using these instructions.

It is probably worth a shot.

1 Turn on the other receiver and open the System Information
screen. (For help opening the System Information screen, refer to
the user guide for the other receiver.)
Write down the TV2 address shown:

2 Press and hold the AUX button until all the mode buttons light up,
and then release the button. The AUX button flashes.

3 Use the NUMBER PAD on the remote control to enter a 3,
followed by the address you wrote down in step 1.

4 Press POUND (#). The AUX button blinks three times.

5 Press RECORD to verify that the address in the remote control
now matches the address for the receiver

Probably someone who has worked with Dish equipment before.

I have a DTVPAL DVR (F208 firmware) that usely works OK. Occasionally it starts skipping timers. Rebooting usually restores normal operation. Sometimes it takes several tries.

What might be causing this?

Could be weak reception of the station(s) you're trying to record.
That can be caused by weather (thunderstorms, etc) or by antenna aim.

P. Smith (post #6716 of this forum) seems to have gotten further than anyone else in seeing the files on the DTVPal DVR hard drive. Can someone suggest software that could be used to extract the files for use in TSReader (or any other program)?

It is stated several places that No one has found a way to access the recordings on the original drive using a computer. (e.g. post #1 of this forum). Using Easeus Data Recovery (Partition Recovery), I was able to recover files about the right size of the stored HD OTA programs, but I was not able to make the files usable.

Here is a compendium of other posts regarding extracting AV files from Dish DVRs:

PVRExplorerPro is designed to extract AV files from earlier Dish DVRs. PVRExplorerPro could extract MPEG-2 files but not MPEG-4. The file system of the DTVPal DVR is sufficiently different such that PVRExplorerPro does not seem to work at all.

The Dish file system has been called:
- DaveFileSystem or DaveSystemDisk
- EFS or Echostar File System
- Raw

Apparently, earlier Dish DVRs had Linux file systems. Tools such as Ext2Fsd, DishPVRfs, and Linux Reader from DiskInternals were able to see the Linux files.

If a partition is created on the DTVPal DVR hard drive, Disk Investigator will display the drive raw data. DTVPal DVR seems to be oblivious to the partition.

The original DTVPal hard drive is designed to not spin up in a PC. Therefore, use a different SATA drive.


Perhaps the motivation for this work is reduced since a few other DVRs allow easy transferring of the recorded programs. Nevertheless, the DTVPal DVR is such an attractive DVR, I am hoping an elegant solution will be created.

This procedure does work on my original Pal remotes.

Thanks
Jim

A couple of PALDVR box questions:

1) When you first set up a NEW DVR. How long does it take the TVGUIDE icon to show up with 7 to 8 days of info? We get CBS NYC at 98 to 100 signal. I remember reading it can take 24 to 36 hours? Is that right? NYC is a TVGUIDE Market.

When I first set it up I am only getting PSIP info.

2) Should I disable the box stand-by timer? When I try I get a warning message. That by doing this it will hamper the box's maintenance. So far I put it to 8 hours. That is the max. Until you guys tell me what to do in this situation.


Thanks

That's normal. TVGOS can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.


I think most folks leave it at the default, which I believe is 3 hours.

The timer is reset to 0 anytime you press a button on the remote so as CHUCK44 says, the default is OK. Since you are new I will mention that in STANDBY the DVR still records when the timers are set etc, it just lets the DVR know that it is OK to change channels etc looking for TVGOS and PSIP data and download software updates (of which we don't expect to see any).
You also want to disable updates to get rid of that pesky "software update failed because of lost internet connection" message.

I also have 2 PAL DVR setup right next to one TV. However I only use 1 remote and therefore keep the other as a backup and spare so that when one dies I have a brand new one available.

I use a piece of cardboard with aluminun foil wrapped around it to keep the remote signal from reaching the PAL DVR that I don't want turned on by simply placing the cardboard in front of the unit to block and deflect the remote's beam.

That was the first thing I did. Since my Aunt has no Internet at all.

The reason I asked about the Disable the STAND-by timer is because on the Normal PAL box with no DVR. Everyone on that board says to disable it.